Comic 325 - Check out the room

Author Notes:

You start by checking the drinking fountain in the corner. It does, indeed, put out water when you press the button. Normal water, even--no odd coloring or smell.

You check the small benches. There's scratches, but no notes or markers.

You check the lockers. Both are firmly locked this time. You try the numbers 4056, 4057, 5640, 5657, 5740, and 5756 on both lockers; none of them work.

Lastly, you head back into the toy store and grab some loose change. You bring it back to the cola machine, insert some money, and press the button. A cola rolls out.

You pop the tab. It does, in fact, contain cola this time.

You suspect that this room is a more accurate version of Michelle's memory, while the other room is a reversed distortion of the room, more symbolic and representative than true to life.

A figment of Michelle suddenly bursts into the room. She slams the door so hard that it nearly comes off its hinges. Though she's trying to contain it, you can tell that she's furious, upset, maybe the least calm that you've ever seen her. She storms up to one of the lockers, and rapidly inputs the number 0048.

She swings the locker door open, and she reaches for her digital pet. She just wants to see it right now. Whatever is going on, whatever's just occurred... she needs to distract herself from that. She needs to leave the world behind, if only for a moment. This is her only escape.

The device breaks almost as soon as she picks it up.

Michelle squeezes just a little too hard, the round frame shattering in her large hand.

On any other day, it wouldn't be much, but it just adds onto the already crushing weight. Tears fill her eyes as she stares at the broken device, the electronic fragments in her hand, the imaginary creature she's been raising for months gone in an instant.

She's only here to do what she was designed to do. She was grown for one purpose, and no matter how hard she tries, she's shackled to that role. She can't even pretend to do more, to be more.

Michelle breaks down, sobbing at her locker. The image of her slowly fades from sight.

That settles it, one of our birds is Michelle's bird. She doesn't have to pick it up or hold it in any way that might make her strength a problem; it can just hop onto her hand and sit on her shoulder and be there for her. And her toughness will help when it gets a bit too feisty and nips at her, as birds often do. It will be a good pet for her and she will be a good friend for it.

A raven would probably be more likely to respond to "this is your foodfriend, who gives you food and also pets you," but yeah, we should be able to hasten the process of the bird recognizing "oh hey this is a nice person who gives me food, and also pets me; I should stick around for more of this."